A variety of medical procedures are performed to treat various female pelvic dysfunctions, including procedures to treat urinary incontinence, and correcting various prolapse conditions, such as uterine prolapse, cystoceles, rectoceles, and vaginal vault prolapse.
Women often experience vaginal prolapses due to age or other factors. For example, women may experience a cystocele, a rectocele and/or a hysterocele. A cystocele occurs when the bladder bulges into the vagina, and a rectocele occurs when the rectum bulges into the vagina. A hysterocele occurs when the uterus descends into the vagina. An enterocele (small bowel prolapse) can also occur when the small bowel pushes through the upper wall of the vagina. It is relatively common for a hysterocele and cystocele, or hysterocele and rectocele, or other combinations thereof, to occur at the same time. It is also common for different types of prolapse to occur in relatively quick succession.
Some treatments include suturing procedures or the use of implants for support or suspension. A hysterocele is often treated with a hysterectomy followed by a vaginal vault suspension. Various devices and procedures are used to deliver and secure pelvic implants within a variety of different anatomical structures within a pelvic region. Implants can be delivered to a pelvic region through one or more vaginal incisions, and/or through exterior incisions (such as abdominal incisions) in the patient.
Some implants differ in many ways including size, shape, material, number and location of arm portions, and in the method in which they are delivered and placed within a pelvic region. For example, various implants include couplings or tack welds between certain elements, and the physicians are required to break these coupling or tack welds while placing the implant within the pelvic region. However, in some cases, the breaking of such couplings or tack welds is not always easy and does not always have a reproducible result. In some cases, the breaking of the couplings or tack welds may lead to damage to the surrounding tissue. Thus, it may be desirable to provide enhanced pelvic implants and delivery processes associated with such implants, such that implants can be released smoothly without the use of couplings or tack welds; thereby, reducing or preventing damage to the body of the patient or to the implant during implantation.